1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a battery management system and a battery management method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a battery management system and method for a vehicle utilizing electrical energy.
2. Related Art
Vehicles using a gasoline or heavy oil internal combustion engine have caused serious air pollution. Accordingly, various attempts to develop electric or hybrid vehicles have recently been made in order to reduce air pollution.
An electric vehicle uses a battery engine run by electrical energy outputted by a battery. Since the electric vehicle mainly uses a battery formed by one battery pack including a plurality of rechargeable/dischargeable secondary cells, there is merit in that it has no emission gases and less noise.
The term “hybrid vehicle” commonly refers to a gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle which uses gasoline to power an internal combustion engine and an electric battery to power an electric motor. Recently, hybrid vehicles using an internal combustion engine and fuel cells and hybrid vehicles using a battery and fuel cells have been developed. The fuel cells directly obtain electrical energy by generating a chemical reaction while hydrogen and oxygen are continuously provided.
Since battery performance directly affects a vehicle using electrical energy, it is required that each battery cell have superior performance. Also, it is required that a battery management system for measuring voltage and current of the overall battery so as to efficiently manage charging/discharging operations of each battery cell be provided.
The above information is provided only for an enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention, and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.